Licenses used by elevation datasets.

7 February 2021

There are some key datasets without which gpxz wouldn’t work. Furthermore, gpxz won’t be a success if it common for elevation datasets to come with a license that’s incompatible with my usecase.

• For a dataset to be used in gpxz it must have a license that allows for modification and redistribution.
• Attribution is no problem, as I plan to attribute all datasets anyway.
• Commercial use is probably needed: although the dataset will be open and freely downloadable, I would like to offer a paid option too. I’m not sure the legal status of charging for access (but not the dataset) so a commercial use allowance would be idea.

Many datasets use the Creative Commons Attribution license (like the NZ 8m DEM or Australia 5m DEM), the similar UK Open Government License (UK 1m DEM), or a similar custom license like GEBCO.

In a quick look I couldn’t find any license or terms for the US products like SRTM or National Elevation Dataset. I’ll keep looking but it seems they come with no usage restrictions.

The main dataset I could find with commercial restrictions is the CIGAR void-filled version of SRTM.

So it doesn’t look like I’ll have many issues finding appropriate datasets to use.